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Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl Who Drank the Moon, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Love
Storytelling, Censorship, and Control
Memory, Forgetting, and the Future
Sorrow vs. Hope
Summary
Analysis
Glerk doesn’t approve of Luna, but Fyrian loves Luna immediately and sings off-key to her every chance he gets. Within two weeks, their home is transformed. Glerk steps over sharp toys and is told to leave so he doesn’t wake or frighten Luna. By the end of the third week, Glerk is done. He forbids Xan from loving Luna and asks if she’s aware of what the Poet says about Witches raising children. Xan sarcastically says that it’s surely insightful. Glerk approaches and looks at the smiling, drooling baby. He tries not to smile and thinks that she’s being cute to spite him. He tells himself not to fall in love and then tells Xan that the Poet says nothing about babies and Witches.
Later, the reader will learn that Glerk actually is the Poet—and in that sense, he can write whatever he’d like to about babies and Witches. His choice to say nothing about it suggests that Luna is beginning to get to him and warm his heart. In this way, the novel continues to show that love is what makes a family: as Glerk grows to love Luna, their familial ties will become even stronger and more meaningful.
Themes
This delights Xan, but Glerk says that she’s missing the point. Xan insists that Glerk is missing Luna’s babyhood by being so miserable, and Glerk feels heartbroken when he sees how upset Xan is with him. Fyrian perches on Xan’s shoulder so he doesn’t get too close to Luna. This is for safety: Fyrian often hiccups fire, and Luna’s magic might explode at any minute and hurt Fyrian. As Fyrian sneezes flame onto Xan’s hair, Xan asks Glerk to take Fyrian for a walk.
While Glerk isn’t sad, per se, his crotchetiness is still negative—and Xan makes it clear that dwelling on negative emotions is going to do nothing but keep Glerk from experiencing positive ones. This suggests that people have a choice: they can dwell in their negative emotions and miss out, or they can choose to be hopeful and happy, and to experience all that life has to offer.
Themes
Glerk rolls his eyes at Fyrian’s attempts to pick flowers for Luna (Fyrian lights them on fire every few minutes) and brushes off Fyrian’s incessant questions about wanting to see the “giants.” The narrator explains that Fyrian is the size of a dove, but he believes that he’s huge and that Xan and Glerk are giants. This is because Fyrian’s mother told him that he would be a giant before she dove into the volcano. To avoid Fyrian, Glerk pretends to nap in the bog.
Xan’s choice to lie to Fyrian, while questionable, shows that she does place a lot of importance on the relationship between mother and child. In this case, she’s willing to spin elaborate lies all for the sake of making Fyrian feel as though his mother didn’t lie to him.
Themes
Soon, Fyrian is tired of all the noise that Luna makes and begs Xan to “magic her quiet.” Xan refuses on the grounds that it’s unethical to influence another person’s will, so Luna babbles, screeches, and cries. Glerk makes a sling and carries Luna around the swamp while reciting poetry. He tried to not love her, but she says “Glerk” one day, which makes Glerk’s heart want to burst. Xan and Glerk watch for Luna’s magic. They can both see it, and the moon feeds Luna at every opportunity. Luna’s magic doubles yearly as she grows into a curious, energetic, and naughty child. Xan eventually decides to stop worrying. Glerk suggests teaching Luna poetry, Fyrian wants to teach her math, and Xan decides to teach her science. Glerk whispers poems to her as she sleeps.
That Glerk whispers poems to Luna so often makes it clear that he has come to love her. Specifically, the fact that he’s reciting poetry to her shows that he wants her to know all that she possibly can—and introducing her to his poetry is a way for Luna to steep herself in the past and in a different form of storytelling. Xan’s insistence that she can’t make Luna be quiet shows that at this point, sticking to her principles is easy, as noise is a relatively trivial and lighthearted problem.
Themes
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